Farewell Aperture

For someone like me, who spends 6 hours in Aperture each and every day, such statements don't come lightly. I have used Aperture since the day I bought my first (modern) Mac - 2006. Over the years we've had our ups and downs, but the software's robust build, ingenious interface, and features (which, for a time) outclassed the competition, kept me faithful to its name for the last eight years. Sadly, those days are long gone. My final hopes were vested in this year's WWDC, where (as expected) no mention of an Aperture update was made. My worries lie in the fact that Aperture is being slowly (and surely) phased out of Apple's product line, and will soon be replaced by a more consumer-oriented editing application.

A little bit about myself: My wife and I run boutique portrait studios in NYC & San Diego. We specialize in fresh & modern family photography, and document the lives of some 300 families each year (which translates into some 150k images!). The remaining 25% of our business comes from commercial assignments for a variety of children's clothing brands. But despite the thousands upon thousands of images edited in Aperture each year, it has never let me down. On those few and rare occasions when I had come across a stumbling block, the Apple team was prompt to respond to my issues by phone, and offered to have my Aperture library files overnighted to them for troubleshooting. Sadly, the last major release of Aperture took place in February of 2010. It almost reads like a chapter from a history book. 4+ years is an eternity in an industry that's moving flank speed ahead.

To those of you still using Aperture, I tip my hat. I really do hope Apple commits more resources to this amazing piece of software, and gives you an update that's long overdue. I have crossed my fingers far too long, hoping for a resurrection to what may very well be abandon-ware at this point. The grass may not be that much greener in the Lightroom camp, but at least it's alive and breathing.